JRE MMA Show #172 with Gable Steveson
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Joe Rogan notes Gable Steveson was named after Dan Gable and won an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, calling it prophetic. Gable's mom chose the name after hearing 'Gable' repeatedly at a tournament in Iowa with his older brother; she liked Cael Sanderson but settled on Gable Dan. Dan Gable was a huge figure in Midwest wrestling. Gable says his timeline mirrors Dan Gable's except for MMA, which he wishes Dan had done—Dan would have been amazing, though MMA wasn't around then, maybe bare knuckle or street fights.
Joe laments no real professional outlet for actual wrestling. Gable agrees and mentions RAF (American Freestyle Wrestling) as a promising new league trying to create matchups, drafts, and big stars like in fighting. Wrestling needs this to grow big. MMA is huge now, associating wrestling with MMA or pro wrestling. Joe compares to soccer: huge worldwide but not in America due to saturated sports market.
Soccer players like Ronaldo earn $500 million, get $1 million per goal, doing bicycle kicks. In America, LeBron James is the biggest athlete but lacks 'wow factor' compared to soccer stars in Italy or Spain. Overseas countries have fewer sports (Italy: soccer, boxing, some basketball). America struggles to create wrestling's big star.
Joe says wrestling is exciting, easy to understand. Gable agrees most get it, though points system can be learned. Joe wrestled one year in high school alongside taekwondo, was pretty good at taekwondo. Gable suggests Joe try wrestling given his athleticism; Joe would figure it out, especially flexibility—anyone can get flexible by stretching. Flexibility takes work, might compromise stability, but Yoel Romero is extremely flexible, explosive at 48 (allegedly, from Cuba, real age unknown, maybe 35), made Pat Downey look like a beginner with 48 blast doubles like 2004 Olympics.
Sign in to read the full notes
Get access to AI-generated notes, topic timestamps, and more.